Keith Hill left with plenty to ponder for Rochdale

Lund did not come out for the second half after he dislocated a shoulder and Lillis was stretchered off on the hour-mark with an ankle injury.

Lillis was replaced by 16-year-old Jon Diba Musangu, who could have been sent off for handling the ball outside his area.

But Rochdale were still second best to a Chesterfield side who dominated from the start and were good value for a second league win of the season courtesy of two penalties by Eoin Doyle.

Doyle also hit the woodwork twice before he scored from the spot in 39th minute after Jay O'Shea had been tripped by Joe Rafferty and he beat Musangu in the 75th minute after he had been fouled by Rhys Bennett.

Although Ian Henderson scored a stoppage-time penalty after Ian Evatt had handled, it was too late for Rochdale and Hill said: "There's no way I could sum that up with the players after the match.

"At the start of the day Peter Vincenti is taken ill when he was going to start the match and it was just one accident after another.

"But Chesterfield were excellent and were probably value for money for the win without the penalties and I like the way they play.

"Matt Lund's shoulder popped out and that's probably going to be a long-term injury, which is a shame because he's a stand-out player.

"But you have to get up and running in League One and adjust with the players we've got.

"We didn't give ourselves an opportunity to get anything out of the game because we gave another silly penalty away and it was a stonewall penalty.

"Results are decided by key moments and there were key bad decisions from players."

Chesterfield first-team coach Kevin Lynch said: "No matter what league you are in you want to get off to a great start because it's a long campaign and there will always be ups and downs so it's important to have a good start regardless of what team you are.

"But we will continue to work and keep our feet firmly on the ground and move on to Tuesday night when hopefully the fans will come in their droves again.

"We always go in with a positive attitude and so do the players.

"One of the things we pride ourselves on is that we are a footballing team with great players who can handle the ball in tight areas and that's credit to the manager and staff.